


Good Hunting

by 100demons



Series: blood of the covenant [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: ANBU - Freeform, F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 08:02:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4052539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/100demons/pseuds/100demons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“If I die in in the cross-fire between you and Sakura,” Shikamaru began to warn her as she sailed past him, assailing him with a cloud of sickly sweet perfume he knew she only put on to annoy him. </p><p>“Don’t worry, I’ll burn all of your porn mags before your Mom gets your things,” Ino said cheerily, throwing one last parting shot over her shoulder before heading towards the open doors of the mess hall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Hunting

The crisp edges of the gray Intel uniform looked good on Ino, the sharp creases of her uniform trousers looking nearly as deadly as the icy glare shooting out of her eyes. She wore boots, steel-toed and laced nearly all the way up to her knees; today had been a working day, he noted, catching a smear of dried blood on the instep of her left shoe. 

“You’re late.”

Shikamaru hunched even further. “Hello to you too,” he greeted her.

“You’re off your usual routine,” Ino said as she stepped closer, the dark slash of her mouth (lipstick perfectly applied, of course) pressed into a thin, unhappy line. “You should have been by the mess hall at least fifteen minutes ago.” 

“Last minute meeting with my CO,” Shikamaru shrugged with one shoulder. “What are you doing on this side?” Intel was located in the same general area as ANBU but quartered in their own, more expansive buildings, equipped with a larger mess hall that served coffee strong enough to dissolve spoons. Shikamaru usually met Ino there or in her own office, tucked away in one of the many different sub-basements tunneling underneath Intel grounds. 

“Imagine my surprise when I hear that you’ve been having a dinner _thing_ with Sakura here in HQ, and not a word about it from _either_ of you.”

Shikamaru fancied that he could almost see the emphasis Ino’s voice. “It’s not really a thing, we’ve only met like twice,” he said. “And it’s not just me and Sakura, there’s also Sai.”

Ino’s finely plucked eyebrow arched up. “Really?” she said, sounding interested, and this was not at all how Shikamaru wanted this conversation to go. 

“I suppose you’re here to join in,” Shikamaru said, already resigned to third wheeling in the corner with Sai. Maybe they could grunt one syllable words at each other and bang rocks like cavemen. Or maybe Sai would make more weird innuendos about dicks again. Shikamaru had no idea how Sakura managed to put up with Sai for so long, but chalked it up to being just another Team Seven kind of thing. 

“I’d _love_ to have dinner with you, dear genin teammate, thank you for the invitation,” Ino fairly glittered at him and Shikamaru rolled his eyes. 

She fell into step with him as he pulled away from the door and walked towards the mess hall, a few floors up from the side entrance. Shikamaru took the direct route and headed for the stairs, less trafficked than the winding, tangled passageway in the ceiling vents, and a good ten minutes faster. 

“So, what’s really going on?” Shikamaru finally asked, pausing at a landing to fiddle with a knife that was coming loose from his ankle sheath. Upon closer inspection, Ino’s boots were smeared with dried candle wax and dusted lightly with ash, some minor flecks of blood at least a couple of hours old spattering both insteps. Busy day in the Intel’s interrogation cells. 

Ino’s face was set into what would be an unreadable mask for anyone else; Shikamaru saw the tiny cracks around the corners of her mouth, the glittering light in her eyes. 

“I don’t like being blindsided,” she said finally. 

“I would’ve told you my next day off,” Shikamaru said, standing up and bumping shoulders with her. The tense line of her neck softened a little as she pushed back. “But I’ve barely had the time to get out of HQ and see my Mom as it is. They’ve kept us busy with back to back missions this last month and what little free time I have outside of meals is eaten up by Kurosawa.”

“I know, I know,” Ino sighed, following him as he made his way up another flight of stairs. “I just didn’t like having to hear it from Ken, of all people. Apparently the analysts in sub-basement 6C have been having a field day with all the rumors flying left and right about the three of you regularly meeting to have dinner in HQ.”

“The mouth breather?” Shikamaru guessed, having hazy recollections of Ino complaining about him the last time they had met. 

“No, _that’s_ Ren. Ken’s my second cousin once removed, he’s the guy who messed up the codes in the whole Kiri fiasco last June.” Ino tossed her head, her long braid glinting in the dim fluorescent light. 

“Ah, of course,” Shikamaru said, no more enlightened than before. “Hang on, I thought that you and Sakura called each other nearly every week or so. Hasn’t she said anything about any of this?”

Ino’s eyes narrowed. “No, she didn’t mention anything about meeting up with you after her shifts here. Or Sai. Though come to think of it, this does explain why you were so keen about him. Did you find out anything from Kurosawa?”

Shikamaru thumbed his nose and shook his head, signing in their old familiar code, _classified, discuss later_ , as he said casually, “No, he had no clue.” 

_We’ll talk about this_ , Ino’s fingers flickered back, the keen glint in her eyes brooking no dissent. “Too bad,” she said, smoothly directing the conversation back another way. “Now, what to do with the fact that Sai and Sakura are spending time together…”

“You don’t think they’re--” Shikamaru started, growing alarmed. 

Ino grinned at him, white teeth flashing against her dark lipstick. “Fucking? Who knows.” She tapped the tip of her finger against her jaw. “With Sakura, you always have to watch out for what she doesn’t say.” 

“They’re _teammates_ ,” Shikamaru stressed. 

“Oh, like that’s ever stopped anyone,” Ino said, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s like a rite of passage at this point to hook up with each other and something like forty percent of ninja end up marrying their genin teammates.” She paused, then added thoughtfully, “Though lots of those end up in separation too. Kumiko, one of the junior staff analysts under me, is doing a side project on that actually, and she’s come up with some interesting stuff, good enough to present at the fall conference this year.”

“Not us,” Shikamaru said, dry as a Wind Country desert. “At least, I hope not.”

“Well of course not, we’re Ino-Shika-Chou,” Ino said with a sniff. “Statistical outliers, Kumiko would have to kick us out of the data set. Anyway, back to the topic at hand: I’m pretty sure something is going on between the two of them.”

“I’ve actually observed them interacting in the same space, unlike you,” Shikamaru pointed out. “They read like normal teammates to me.”

“Yes, but reading people is my job, Shika, it’s what I do.” Her fingers skimmed over the gold bars pinned at her collar, marking her status in Intel as an Interrogator in her own right. “You’re trained to skulk threateningly in the shadows and crack skulls, I’m trained to crack minds.”

“Don’t forget, I’m also a professional paranoiac,” Shikamaru put in with a twist of his mouth. “Staging gory murder-suicides are a side hobby.” 

Ino gave him a black grin. “ _And_ you’re all so stupidly suspicious, you lot came up with the tin foil hats. Though I hate how ANBU pretends that it’s got a monopoly on paranoia, as if I don’t have enough trouble keeping all of Intel from going through my trash.”

Shikamaru tipped an imaginary foil cap at her as they finally reached the last landing, pulling the door to the corridor open for her in a mock-chivalrous manner. “I hope we have an entirely uneventful meal and we both come to the conclusion that Sai is a perfectly normal ninja and Sakura is most definitely not fucking him and everyone ends up going home happy.”

Ino leaned in and patted his cheek, her calluses scraping against his stubble. “You’re adorable when you try to pretend that I’m wrong. Delusions will help you just as much as a tin foil hat against a Yamanaka, which is to say, not at all.”

“If I die in in the cross-fire between you and Sakura,” Shikamaru began to warn her as she sailed past him, assailing him with a cloud of sickly sweet perfume he knew she only put on to annoy him. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll burn all of your porn mags before your Mom gets your things,” Ino said cheerily, throwing one last parting shot over her shoulder before heading towards the open doors of the mess hall.

Shikamaru sighed deeply and wondered how a simple chance conversation with Sakura had ended up turning into something as messy and complicated as this. He slipped through the landing door and quickened his pace, to catch up with Ino’s rapidly vanishing gray back as she slipped into the room.

He found her standing by the line for the metal trays and utensils, angled behind a large burly man in a bear mask. 

_Quiet_ , she signed at him, in the pidgin code that Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji had grown up with, a mish mash of Konoha standard, private clan signs and silly hand gestures stolen from Saturday morning cartoons. 

He sent out a small tendril of chakra and tugged the giant man’s shadow around them both, cloaking them in his vast shade and hiding their chakra presences in his. Ino nodded in satisfaction, peering out at the room and towards the small nook in the corner, where Sakura and Sai sat. 

They were tucked away in their usual seat, two alone at a table piled high with Sakura’s mountains of paperwork, research data and reports in varied combinations. A tray sat in one cleared corner, piled with easy finger food that could be eaten with one hand, and not overly inclined to crumbs or mess. A casual observer would have thought them wrapped in a lucky bubble, ignored by the rest of the room; Shikamaru knew, his experienced gaze flicking over the crowded expanse of the room, that the two were granted the rare privilege of privacy, as befit their ranks, and very carefully watched. 

Sai sat in his chair in his blacks and armor, back to the wall, arms crossed across his chest as he periodically surveyed the room. His cloak and sword hung off the back of another chair, mask strung from a cord on his belt, painted face hidden against his side. 

He tilted his head to side, as Sakura apparently made some comment, the crown of her pink hair barely visible behind a towering stack of books. 

_Look_ , Ino signed, her fingers clamping tight around his wrist. _Don’t you see?_

Sai unfolded his arms and reached out to the tray, easily palming a senbon from a forearm sheath and spearing a rolled up scallion pancake with it. He handed it off to Sakura, his free hand playfully tugging at her hair.

Shikamaru read the curve of Sai’s mouth, quirked at the corner in a not-quite smile. _One more bite_ , Sai said, _Or I’ll make you eat ration bars again. I found one that’s cockroach flavored._

Sakura presumably said something, her mouth out of lip-reading sight, and grabbed the senbon with a brown hand. 

_It’s protein rich,_ Sai said, _Very nutritious and medically important_. 

Sakura’s hand made a rude gesture as she handed the now bare senbon back at him. 

The corners of Sai’s eyes crinkled as he took the weapon back, fingers brushing hers briefly, before pulling away.

The man in the burly mask moved forward and Shikamaru felt the gossamer webs of chakra holding the shadow cloak together fade into nothingness. Ino unfolded herself from his side, his hand still encircling his wrist insistently, urging him to see something that wasn’t there--

Shikamaru could see the moment Sai caught sight of him and Ino standing in line and it was as if he were looking at a different person. Sai’s face shuttered closed into that implacable blankness that Shikamaru realized with a jolt as what he had thought was Sai’s normal expression. The difference between the polished mask he wore now and the easy, unaffected look he had on before was so striking, Shikamaru wondered how he had ever thought that the former was Sai’s true face. 

The wrinkles of amusement were gone, his black eyes turning cool and calculating as they swept over Shikamaru and Ino, before giving them an acknowledging nod.

Shikamaru started to raise his free right hand in a casual two fingered salute, but curled it instead into a tight fist over his heart, forearm parallel to his chest in a straight bar, in a subordinate saluting to a superior. It was the same one he gave to Kurosawa. He caught a flicker of expression in Sai’s eyes before he turned away, mouthing something unreadable to Sakura.

Ino’s hand tugged free from his wrist, her fingers leaving pale marks on his skin, where she’d squeezed hard enough to chase the blood away. 

“Well,” Shikamaru mused, “I’ll allow you one ‘I told you so’.”

“Ha!” Ino smiled up at him, with an air of feline satisfaction. “Chouji would have thought I was right.”

“Chouji’s always been more clear-sighted than me,” Shikamaru said, thinking of his friend’s deep well of empathy. “If you know how the mind works, then Chouji knows people’s hearts.”

Ino’s eyes glittered. “I wonder what he would say if he saw all this.”

“Probably to leave them well enough alone,” Shikamaru said, very pointedly. “It’s clear that the two of them have been keeping things quiet and without complications. Don’t make it troublesome, Ino.”

She gave him a look, crossing her arms over her chest. “Have a little faith, Shika. I don’t bring my work home and I won’t mess with Sakura’s head about this. I’ll wait until she’s ready to talk about it with a friend.”

Shikamaru’s gaze flicked down briefly to her stained boots and then back at her steady blue eyes. “Ah,” he said quietly. “Sorry.”

She bumped shoulders with him. “Doesn’t mean I won’t drop hints as subtle as an exploding tag, of course. Well within my rights as her best friend.” _Forgiven_. 

“As long as I’m nowhere near when you trigger the blast,” Shikamaru muttered and grabbed a metal tray as the aisle came into view, along with a pair of wooden chopsticks. “I don’t even know how I’m going to look Sai and Sakura in the face when we sit with them. It’s like the time I found out Asuma-sensei and Kurenai were together and I couldn’t look at anyone on Team Eight without thinking about the time Iruka-sensei showed us how to put condoms on bananas.”

Ino cackled like an old grandmother, grabbing two of everything and stacking it all into a precarious pyramid on her tray. “I remember that, you turned bright red every time Kiba said something to you and I thought you had the biggest crush on him.”

“To my eternal misery,” Shikamaru sighed with feeling. “I had to sit down with Dad and have the most awkward conversation of my life.” Shikaku had fumbled through a stilted lecture on how it was perfectly alright if Shikamaru liked boys or girls or both or none at all and how his parents still loved him very much and the importance of condoms and consent in sexual relations and for heaven’s sake Yoshino, why do I have to be the one doing this?

“I wonder what Temari thinks about…” Ino trailed off, looking not at all curious and very much like a cat pushing a very expensive vase off the counter.

“I am noping so hard of this conversation and everything you are implying,” Shikamaru told her and fled towards relative safety with his half-filled tray in hand. 

Relative safety looked up at him with a handful of senbon in hand, half of them skewered with bits of fried shrimp tempura. “Nara,” said Sai, looking mildly over at Shikamaru and a trailing Ino carrying two trays stacked high with food. “Yamanaka.”

“I apologize in advance for everything that happens after this point,” Shikamaru told him as he sat down heavily, holding his tray up in the air as Sai shifted a pile of reports to the side to clear some space on the table. 

“Oh _hello_ there,” Ino purred as she hip-checked Shikamaru in the shoulder and slid into a seat so close to Sai it was nearly in his lap. 

Sakura had finally managed to drag herself up from the depths of her reports by the point and was blinking owlishly up at Shikamaru. He picked up his sandwich and bit into it, determinedly ignoring the way Ino had managed to curl around Sai’s chair to pick up a dropped napkin.

“There’s a pen mark on your left cheek,” he told her between bites, for lack of anything better to say.

“Oh, yes,” Sakura said, a hand ghosting up to her face. “Sai mentioned that.” Her eyes sharpened as she took in Ino’s attempt to shove her breasts into Sai’s nose and then flicked over to Shikamaru’s hunched shoulders as he attempted to hide behind his drooping chicken sandwich.

“And so Hurricane Ino finally lands,” Sakura said, her voice going sandpaper dry. 

“I had nothing to do with this,” Shikamaru said reflexively, only remembering a little too late that he had been the one to pique Ino’s interest about Sai by asking for her help with the background check. But still, not entirely his fault.

“Sure,” Sakura said, rolling her eyes as she licked her thumb and rubbed at the mark on her face. “Though I’m probably like ninety percent at blame for her obnoxious behavior right now. She wasn’t happy I didn’t tell her about this, huh.”

Shikamaru gave her a one-sided shrug. “More that she had to hear about it from someone else, I think. She likes being the first person to know.” And the fact that Ino was probably testing Sai to see how he would react in front of Sakura. 

More like massive chakra bomb sized hints than exploding tags, Shikamaru thought sardonically. Very subtle, Ino. 

“Rumor spreads faster here than in an Academy playground,” Sakura said, the amusement in her voice a thin veil for the irritation set in the line of her shoulders. “I’m surrounded by a flock of gossipy, twitchy hens. I probably can’t even take a shit in HQ without everyone knowing and then having a bunch of Intel analysts read ten different kinds of meaning into it.”

Shikamaru put down his food and swiped his finger over his forehead in reflection of her seal, then flashed _seven_ at her in standard Konoha sign. 

Sakura looked away, her green eyes glittering. “I’m starting to feel like this is karmic payback for trailing after Sasuke when I was a kid.”

“That’s what you get for winning a war and for managing to be the student of two different Hokages,” Shikamaru told her. “Which reminds me, my boss Kurosawa told me he says hello.”

Sakura’s eyes unfocused briefly. “On his face,” she said, her finger marking the exact line of Kurosawa’s ropey scar on her jaw. The pen mark was still on her cheek, now smudged badly into a misshapen gray splotch. 

“Also known as the Vice Commander of the Corps,” Shikamaru put in. “Professional hardass and ruiner of social lives.”

Sakura snorted. “Like you ever had one in the first place. I remember healing that one up, it was a couple centimeters away from ripping through his carotid. Some nasty post-op complications too, if I remember right.”

And therefore a couple centimeters away from death, Shikamaru neatly translated. Correction, Kurosawa was a professional _badass_. 

“I didn’t you kept such handsome company, Sakura,” Ino said brightly, finally turning her attention over to the less complicated side of the table, to Shikamaru’s everlasting regret. She tossed her braid over a shoulder and leaned her chin coquettishly on her hand. 

“His face is tolerable,” Sakura smiled and Sai’s mouth twitched in something that vaguely resembled a smile, as if in some shared secret joke.

“And I don’t know what you’re so surprised about, you guys _have_ met before,” she continued, blowing out a breath that sent her bangs flying. “Before the war, even.”

“But not in a skin-tight uniform,” Ino said cheerfully, as if that made all the difference. “So, I finally get to sit with the infamous dinner club. There’s a betting pool going on in Intel that you guys were behind the attempted coup in Payroll a few days ago.”

“ _No_ ,” Sakura groaned, burying her face in her hands. “I wish people would stop making up all these weird rumors about me. Sai and I sit together for a meal when our shifts at HQ overlap, then Shikamaru joined in a few weeks ago when he bumped into us and all we do is just have _dinner_. We don’t plot on how to run the village in secrecy, we complain about the weather and how shitty the food is. How does everything involving me in this place snowball into some kind of stupid conspiracy?”

There was a pause and then Sai added in a very bland voice, “Nothing could be traced back to us anyway.”

Sakura punched Sai in the shoulder. “Don’t make it worse,” she scowled at him. 

Sai tilted his head at her and something wordless seemed to pass between them that Shikamaru couldn’t catch. Ino gave him a look from the corner of her eyes, her foot digging insistently ino his ankle.

Shikamaru kicked back and banged his toes against the steel plating of her boots. Ino gave him a cloyingly sweet smile and fluttered her eyelashes at him.

“So, how is Chouji anyway?” Sakura asked, interrupting the shin-kicking skirmish underneath the table. Sai passed her a shrimp skewer and a damp napkin to wipe her face with; she gave him a distracted smile of thanks.

“Busy,” Ino sighed, after one final stomp on Shikamaru’s painfully exposed toes. He winced and wondered for the nth time why ninja favored _sandals_ for combat wear. 

“He’s up at a conference in the capital to meet with some civilian companies on energy drinks,” she went on, the predatory glimmer fading from her sharp features and settling into something resembling her normal, expansive self. “There’s been some interesting breakthroughs in the field and he wants to see if there’s anything he can incorporate in his own work. Plus some other clan stuff he’s got to work out.”

Sai, Shikamaru noticed, had very carefully sidled away from Ino’s side and angled his body in a way that put him solidly between her and Sakura. 

Protecting Sakura?

His gaze wandered back to the bright green diamond on Sakura’s forehead and the slight hint of tension stiffening her back. Protecting Ino from Sakura, more likely. 

Still, Sai was a braver man than most to get in the crossfire like that. Shikamaru took a solid bite of his sandwich. Or stupider. Since he was on Team Seven, it was probably an unhealthy combination of both. 

“I’ve read a couple of his papers on some experimental adjustments made to the soldier pill formula when he asked Nakamura-sensei to double check some of his calculations,” Sakura said eagerly. “Really good stuff, it’s a pity that he won’t be able to publish them for another ten years.”

“Clan rules,” Ino shrugged with one shoulder. “Chouji says that the elders still argue about giving up the original formula and that happened like thirty years ago.” She made a face and dug put down her fork.

“Anyway, enough about old things. Sai, I’ve been dying to ask you this since I saw you guys here.” Ino smiled brightly.

Shikamaru held his breath, furtively watching Sakura’s shoulders tense from the corner of his eye. Now that he knew what to look for, he could see the slight shift in Sai’s balance in response to Sakura’s subtle movements, the flicker of a brown ink brush handle tangling around his fingertips. 

“Since you’ve joined the Guard, have you finally managed to catch sight of the Hokage’s face?”

The atmosphere deflated like a leaky balloon, the undercurrent of unease shriveling up and disappearing. Shikamaru choked a little on a mouthful of food more out of relief than anything else.

Ino looked over at him, still wearing that innocent smile. An eye slivered shut in a wink so quick he almost didn’t even recognized it.

“I…” Sai trailed off, the blankness of his face fading away into something that Shikamaru recognized as Sai’s asshole face. The only thing different from his normal face was the small, creepy looking smile playing over his lips.

“Not his face, no,” Sai said seriously. “But I did see his penis once.” He shook his head somberly. 

Ino leaned forward, her blue eyes lighting up with a demonic glow. “Oh, almost as good. I want all the details. Is he a shower? A grower? Is he cut or uncut? Does he actually have gray hair or is it all just dyed?” Next to Sai, Sakura slumped into an embarrassed heap, hands clapped over her ears while she chanted under her breath, _I hate everyone, I hate everyone…_

Shikamaru felt strongly tempted to join her.

Sai opened his mouth, then shook his head again. “Classified information,” he said simply. “S-Ranked.” 

“One detail?” Ino wheedled, curling a strand of hair around her finger. “I could settle several substantial bets down in Intel with the information and I’d be happy to give you twenty percent of the cut.” 

A snort burst of Sakura. “Oh my god, now I’ve really heard it all. How many are there on Kakashi-sensei?”

“At least ten that I know of,” Ino said promptly. “Six require direct proof, but four will accept circumstantial evidence and/or hearsay as long as sources are provided, or convincingly faked. I could clean house with this stuff.”

Sai bent his head to mouth something in Sakura’s ear, his voice low enough that it was lost amidst the low-level background noise. Shikamaru made a half-hearted attempt to lip-read but felt too lazy to fiddle with the shadows obscuring the curve of Sai’s mouth. 

Sakura’s face brightened slowly, a flush rising in her cheeks.

Shikamaru couldn’t help but look away, feeling as if he were intruding upon something private; the soft look in Sakura’s eyes were an uncomfortable reminder of days long gone, full of shogi games and winding conversations about the future.

His hand ghosted over the heft of the silver lighter sitting in his trouser pocket.

Ino’s foot tapped lightly on the sharp bone of his ankle, jolting him out of his thoughts.

 _I told you so_ , she gestured at him smugly, the tip of her finger subtly tracing out the pattern code underneath the table. 

_That’s your one_ , Shikamaru signed back casually. The miniscule lines around Ino’s eyes tightened as she too watched the pair across the table underneath her lashes.

“Fifty percent of all earnings,” Sai announced suddenly, Sakura looking enormously pleased next to him. “And word of any wagers like this in the future.”

“Done and done,” Ino said instantly. She stuck out a hand and waited a beat before Sakura nudged Sai into shaking it. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

Sakura’s eyes narrowed in suspicion but before she could say anything, Ino slid gracefully out of her seat, carrying her still half-full tray in one hand. “I’ve got to get to a meeting in twenty minutes and I’ve got to change into a fresh suit for that, but I’ll be in touch about the money.” Ino grinned, shark-like. 

Shikamaru hastily got up to his feet, wiping his hands on the backseat of his trousers. He tossed all his garbage onto the tray and tucked it into the crook of his arm. “I’ll walk you out-- um. Nice having dinner with you guys again.”

“Okay?” Sakura said slowly, her brow furrowing. “I guess I’ll see you next week. Same time?”

Shikamaru shook his head. “I’m getting shipped out again for a few weeks on a new mission, I’ll see you guys when I get back. Senpai.” He nodded in farewell, saluting properly towards Sai again. 

Sai nodded back impassively, which was as much the guy ever did in terms of farewells. 

“I’ll call you later, Sakura,” Ino waved and winked over at Sai before linking her free arm through Shikamaru’s hand. She steered the two of them out of the mess hall, only making a brief detour to throw out their trays.

He waited until they were in a deserted hallway, free of any other human shadows, before he tugged his arm free. “When’s your meeting actually?”

“In two hours,” Ino grinned up at him. “But I wanted to get away before things got complicated. Besides, I do have some things I want to take care of now.”

“You’re the one who started complicating it,” Shikamaru sighed. “And what things?”

Ino pursed her lips and scanned the hallway, her brow furrowed in concentration. Shikamaru felt a tiny flare of chakra as Ino checked the room for hidden signatures and hidden listening devices. Likewise, he swept the room one last time for unwanted shadows.

“There are a couple of rumors going around,” Ino said slowly, carefully, after Shikamaru gave the all-clear sign. “Whoever Sakura spends her time with, people are going to notice.”

Comprehension dawned on Shikamaru’s face. “How many wagers on the two of them in Intel?”

Ino set her shoulders. “Eighteen,” she said in a low voice, her voice icy cold. “I caught wind of it a few weeks back and then after news of your dinner meetings went out, people got a lot more interested. Sakura isn’t exactly the social butterfly of Konoha and wherever she does go, she’s almost always with Team Seven. These days, that mostly means Sai.”

“So, the dinner tonight was recon?”

Ino nodded. “I tried to tell you beforehand, but I didn’t have enough time. Plus, you know, you can surprisingly be an idiot about these things. I needed to see the two of them together in person.”

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, rubbing the back of his neck casually. “So, what do you think?”

Ino looked away, arms crossed over her chest. “They look… Sakura looks really happy,” Ino said finally. 

Shikamaru thought back to the shift in Sai’s expressions, the easy way he held himself around Sakura and moved around her, with her. The way he coaxed her into eating while working, the way Sakura coached him through the finer social nuances of a conversation, the way they looked at each other like they were the only two people in the world, like Asuma-sensei had once looked at Kurenai.

“There are some awful rumors and bets going on down there,” Ino said, her voice soft but unyielding. 

Shikamaru heard some fucked up shit in the ANBU locker rooms; he could only imagine what kind of rumors echoed in the bowels of Intel, filled with crackpots and analysts paid to make up and trade in lies and gossip.

“How long will it take for you to clean the place up a little bit?”

“Two days.” Ino made a see-saw motion with a hand. “Maybe three if I’m busy with official work. But I’ll get done.” Her mouth twisted in an ugly snarl. “ _No one_ messes with my friends and gets away with it,” she finished fiercely. 

Shikamaru nodded, once. “I’ll leave you to your work.” He clapped a hand on her shoulder, gripping it tight. 

“I’ll see you when I get back from my mission.” _Good hunting_ , he tapped on the embroidered braid on the shoulder of her uniform. 

Ino smiled up at him, showing all of her perfect white teeth. “I'm looking forward to it.”


End file.
